Anthony: The Mojave Avenger
by YoRork
Summary: Anthony was an ex-NCR soldier turned courier looking for adventure but unfortunately his luck took a turn for the worse and now he seeks revenge against a man in a suit not knowing about the bigger overall picture...


Prologue

I was getting bored sitting around here; Primm was a nice enough town; a hotel, a little casino, a delivery company and a few other buildings, but it had been too quite for me ever since McBain and I fended off a group of raiders that tried to sack the place a few weeks back. My name is Anthony and I'm an ex-NCR soldier and now Deputy of a little town named Primm out in the Mojave Desert, the thing was, nothing was going on and I've had a knack for not staying in one place for too long, a trait I gained from my mother who was a traveling merchant. I was born to a trader and an ex-NCR soldier turned mercenary in a small settlement that no longer existed. My mother taught me all the tricks of the trade while my father taught me everything I needed to know to survive in a place like the Mojave.

I followed my father's footsteps at the age of 18 and joined the NCR; I followed in his footsteps again when my time was up and became a mercenary for hire. I spent nearly 10 years in the service; I fought alongside fellow NCR members and Desert Rangers against legionnaires, The Brotherhood of Steel, and the Great Khans at places like the Hoover Dam and HELIOS One earning various medals and being promoted and demoted countless times, a very colorful service but I got fed up with all the political crap that was going on and decided to strike out on my own.

I went from town to town trying to build a name for myself, which I had by now. I've traveled to Vault City, Navarro, New Reno, New Vegas, Hoover Dam, you name it and I've probably been there, either protecting someone or hand delivering something myself, most people around these parts knew who I was and knew what kind of work I could do.

It had been like any other usual day in Primm, the sky was clear, people were walking through the streets, and McBain was patrolling the town like usual. Another boring day in the small town of Primm, I decided to go see Johnson and Ruby Nash, two good friends of mine, at their house which was also the base operations of the town's delivery service, the Mojave Express.

"Hey John, you got anything new going on? Anything you need a hand with?" I asked John walking through the doorway into his house.

"Well Anthony, you do have some kind of timing," Johnson said, "I actually just got a big job that needs multiple people to get it done, thing is, the last person I need signed up a few hours ago, if anything happens I'll give you a shout."

Damn, just missed my chance to get out of here for awhile, whatever, the time will come again, hell, maybe I'll just go explore the desert for a little while by myself, wouldn't be the first time. I guess I like having a mission, or a goal, aimlessly wandering around just isn't my thing and the job Johnson was talking about seemed interesting enough, hopefully I can get my chance with it. My wish came true for me a few hours later when I was in the Vikk and Vance Casino, I was at one of the slot machines when Johnson came in and approached me.

"Hey Anthony, you still interested in that job I was talking about earlier?" Johnson asked me.

"You bet John, I've been itching to get out of here for a while. What happened with the other guy?" I asked him.

"The last person who signed up, a few hours before you did, came in a few minutes ago to check up on the job, he was looking at the list I had of the other people who signed up, for some reason he said he couldn't do the job anymore and left." Johnson explained to me.

"Hmmmm…anyways, when does the job start?" I asked him.

"Tomorrow you can come by and pick up the package and the route you'll be taking, the person who contracted this job was very specific on the routes for the various packages." Johnson told me.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then." I told him, and with that I walked out of the casino and called it a night.

I prepared myself in the morning; I was packing lightly because I knew no matter which way they were sending me a settlement would be nearby. I was wearing some light clothing and a wide brimmed hat to keep the sun out of my eyes and keep my face from getting burnt. I also had with me a 9mm pistol that I used to use back in my days with the NCR, it was still in good shape and I had a nice little stockpile of ammunition for it. I tucked the 9mm into my belt and left my house, which was in the corner of town behind the casino, and headed towards the Mojave Express arriving there about 2 o'clock.

"Alright everyone, listen up," Johnson said to the six of us, "The contractor of this job was very specific with every detail; everyone is to leave at dusk at the same time and must follow their routes," Johnson said while passing out a piece of paper to everyone, "Good luck out there and you'll receive payment upon delivery."

And with that the six of us headed out into town to kill the few hours we had left before we were to head out into the Mojave. Many questions were in my head, hopefully they would be answered upon my arrival at my destination, the map I had been given was having me head north towards the small town of Goodsprings, a place I had been many times before and from there shooting diagonally northeast into New Vegas. From experience I knew it would be faster just going through Nipton and Novac to get to New Vegas but the directions were very clear about following the given route so I figured I'd head towards Goodsprings at dusk. My package was an oversized chip that looked like it was made out of platinum and from what I could tell was nothing else besides that.

Dusk came and it was time to roll out, I wished I was going through Novac and Nipton, a lot more action that way but I guess Goodsprings isn't the worst place they could have sent me. I left Primm and at about the half way point the sun was barely showing and everything was quiet when I heard a noise nearby, I stopped and looked around but didn't see a thing, not even a gecko. I slowly started walking forward again when I heard another noise and quickly stopped, one hand on my gun the other on the chip, and scanned the area again, this time I saw someone run behind a boulder that was nearby so I slowly made my way towards them. It was very quiet as I approached the rock, I took the corner and was surprised to see no one there when, WHACK! And all I remember was a throbbing headache and a few shadows surrounding me.

I woke up what seemed like a few minutes later and made out a few people walking around me, I recognized most of them as Great Khans but one guy looked different, I didn't know who he was but he was wearing a checkered coat and had slicked back hair. I took in my surroundings then reached for my pistol, it was gone and further more my hands and feet were bound, the Great Khans stopped muttering to each other.

"Look who's waking up." One of the Khans said.

The Checkered Man put his cigarette out and looked at me," Time to cash out." He said to me.

"Would you get it over with?" One of the Khans said.

"Maybe Khans kill people without looking them in the face, but I ain't a fink, dig?" The Checkered Man said looking at me.

The Man pulled the chip I was supposed to deliver out of his jacket, "You've made your last delivery kid," he proceeded to put the chip back into his jacket, "Sorry you got twisted up in this scene," he then pulled out a pistol, "from where you're kneeling it must seem like an 18-karat run of bad luck." He pulled the trigger and I fell to me stomach.

"But, truth is…the game was rigged from the start…"


End file.
